


Taking Different Roads

by trickybastard



Category: Daredevil (TV)
Genre: Another drabble, F/M, I cannot seem to stop, Post-Season 2, kastle - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-08
Updated: 2016-05-08
Packaged: 2018-06-07 03:28:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6783361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trickybastard/pseuds/trickybastard
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Title is from Joy Division's 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' but this is happy-ish. </p>
<p>"She said "I'm not quite myself tonight,<br/>But the way you touch me, oh, makes me tongue tied,<br/>That could be the wine too."</p>
<p>There was something not quite right about the window. But Karen couldn't work out what it was.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Taking Different Roads

**Author's Note:**

> Again, un-betaed but edited slightly by myself so we're getting there! 
> 
> Loosely connected to my previous Kastle fic but can be read alone too. 
> 
> I'm writing a much longer Karen/Frank fic that's threatening to overwhelm my life but these little chunks will probably keep coming until it's more or less ready to go.

There was something not quite right about the window. But Karen couldn't work out what it was. Since her previous apartment had been shot up by persons still unknown, the few friends and acquaintances she had all agreed that she shouldn't stay there and with very little effort, they found her a slightly nicer one. One without bullet holes in the walls and furniture. Part of her was offended that they had overruled her so easily but the majority of her was happy that the deadbolts on the door and locks on the windows existed. Not to forget that they actually worked, which wasn't always certain in New York and some of its less than concerned landlords but this one seemed on the ball enough and even waived away the need for the first and last months deposit. Although she couldn't prove it, she just knew Foggy and/or Matt leaned on him with some lawyer chat and managed to persuade him otherwise. 

Still, as she looked around the living room, nothing was out of its place and the same thing in her bedroom and the new yet old bathroom, that blew her mind because of the size, but she couldn't shake the feeling something was off. Although she was aware that her paranoia would always be a little bit more heightened than others because of all the bad things that seemed to occur which meant she may have been over-thinking it. 

Walking back over to the couch, the blonde slipped her pumps off and tucked her sore feet under herself, ready for another evening of research into the undercurrent of bad people that ran through the city. But, as she comforted herself, there was wine chilling in the fridge, Chinese take-out number stored in her phone and a couple of fresh cupcakes waiting for afterwards. First she had to work on keeping the good people of Hell's Kitchen safe. Or as safe as an investigative reporter could make them be. Sure, she didn't maim people (Matt) or kill them either (Frank) but in her own way, she tried. Perhaps it wasn't what the majority of her peers would be doing on a Friday night but it was something she enjoyed. 

A few hours passed like this, her chow mein abandoned half-finished along with her wine glass, the rosé turning tepid and the strain in her eyes starting to bother her but Karen finally felt like she was along the right lines of and didn't want to stop until it was all down in her laptop. Which was how Frank found her, which was an issue in of itself, but the tap at her window caught her attention as did his ever searching eyes. Other than the immediate shock of being disturbed, she still didn't feel scared despite previously telling him that he was dead to her and then seeing him on the roof, gloriously alive and pinning her to the spot with just a look, despite the distance and nothing more than a million unspoken words between them. 

For all her talk, she knew letting Frank into her place was a choice she would make a hundred times over before choosing to ignore him. Somehow she almost felt anchored to this man who could physically break her without thinking but treated her like the most precious person in the world. It was those moments that she felt the most disgusted with herself because of the sheer jealousy that it made her feel towards a woman that had been so brutally cut down in the prime of her life. Maria Castle was a ghost that simply hadn't taken to haunting as much as being the spectre that made Karen want to be a better person, along with others. Which meant the gangs that had done so had gotten their comeuppance by Frank's hands. Which in turn meant his family's death hadn't been for naught but would never bring them back. 

Sighing, she set aside the laptop and opened the locks on her windows, and waited for the heavy scent of death and destruction to make itself known. But as he stepped in, there was barely any and whatever soap he used made its way to the foreground instead. Which only served to confuse her emotions further. She had no idea how he found her but then again, he was able to find the scummiest people who lived off the grid, why would she expect otherwise? 

Taking a good look at him, the man behind the myth, Karen felt her spirit lifting. There were a few fresh bruises that were fading, another break to add to his strong and determined nose, a new scar forming under his eyebrow but for Frank? It was a massive improvement. She tried to repress the smile that was threatening to make itself known but one corner of her mouth still came up as he cleared his throat and she waited for him to speak, seeing as he was the one who showed up at hers and not vice versa. 

Crossing her arms, glad to have the meagre amount of power in this situation, particularly as they were in her home and not neutral territory, she waited. Waited for what she wasn't sure but she knew he would get out whatever it was that was on his mind which meant he was here and not out killing people. Ordinarily she might feel bad but the small amount of wine in her system meant she felt unbeatable and ready for the trouble he had in all likelihood brought. 

“Ma'am,” he said, while lifting his cap off before scratching at his head. His low, rumbling voice, like gravel on glass, filled her living room and made her feel more alive than any cup of coffee or wine ever could but it wasn't a feeling she was sure she could hold onto. 

“Frank,” she replied, before walking over to her kitchenette area, desperate for something to do instead of having to keep looking at his open face. “Would you like some coffee or maybe wine? There's probably a beer or two at the back o-” 

Her speech was interrupted by his hand on her waist and she took a deep breath, the intimacy being more frightening than any single item of his arsenal. “I'm sorry, Karen. For everything. For nothing. For disappearing. For dragging you into any of this. But you're not my priest and this isn't confession. I'm not Matt, the good ol' altar boy.” He scoffed, looked at her straight in the eyes, and asked, “am I still dead to you?” She struggled for the right words as he kept his gaze steady on hers. His thumb was now making small circles on her hip as their personal space seemed to shrink in tiny increments. A bomb could've gone off next door yet her only focus was on those eyes of his and the way he was making her body thrum with so many things. 

Part of her really wanted to lean into him, wrap her arms around this man and never let go but another part, the part that knew how to unload a gun into a dangerous man, was wary. She knew she was safe with him, always would be, but there were just so many unspoken things lying between them and after the emotional devastation of being lied to for so long by Matt, she wasn't sure if her heart could cope with more breakage. However, in the maelstrom that was her life, Frank had always been such a tower of strength and yeah, maybe it wasn't sensible and yeah, maybe there would be some hurt along the way but Karen knew that was better than living a half life, one where her only connection to humanity was reporting on those that tried to ruin it. 

Making her mind up, knowing that one way or another she was going to have Frank in her life again, she chose to answer him with a kiss. Whatever energy the former Vermont native thought was between them before was more like a match being struck than the blaze that ignited from their lips meeting. Still, as she smiled fully once more, she knew that somehow between the two of them they would find a way to make this work and that was all she could hope for in a world that threatened tear them asunder all the time. 

Now she knew why the place had felt off before. Frank Castle hadn't been it and as he made his presence very well known now, Karen Page was infinitely glad of it.


End file.
